Uzu - Remnants
by marmark
Summary: The inhabitants of Uzushiogakure were always known for how hard they were to put down. With that, it is only natural that there were those that survived its destruction. Their descendants are now all that remains of the once powerful village. This is those remnant's story. [On Hold]
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:Hey. Just a few notes before this starts.**

 **I'm new to this. Any tips, tricks - just reviews in general are greatly appreciated.**

 **The changes to the timeline have happened** _ **before**_ **the start of this story- characters might act OOC for no directly apparent reason**

 **I only acknowledge some fillers/movies. It should be pretty obvious which ones once the become relevant**

*O*O*O*O*

 **I don't own Naruto**

 **01.05.2018: minor corrections(the site doesn't seem to like my old line-breaks, sorry if this was hard to read before)  
**

*O*O*O*O*

Chapter 1 - Interrogation

While she wouldn't admit it, Tayuya actually was a bit scared.

Here she was in a bland interrogation room, that, like many others, didn't have any furniture except a single table and two chairs.

It wasn't anywhere close to her first time in this room - since her capture there had not been a day where she wasn't here and being interrogated.

Not that they ever got something out of her.

But today, today was different.

No guards in the room or at the door, no shackles or other restraints. The guard that shoved her inside seemed a bit out of it but this was just insane.

There were kunai and shuriken lying on the table when she entered. It's not that she hadn't heard of something like this before - Orochimaru loved giving his victims hope - but this was way too obvious.

Not even mentioning that her chakra wasn't sealed.

Scratching one kunai with another, she watched the hardened blade of one create a slight line on the not-quite as hard body of the other weapon.

These were real. This didn't make sense, you don't give a prisoner real weapons.

The only thing that remained locked was her curse mark, but she appreciated the absence of the constant stinging. Even the periodic pulsing that replaced it was marginally better.

Still, for some reason those asswipes thought that she wouldn't be able to hurt whoever was going to enter through that door.

It was the only probable cause, but still was no reason to give her a chance.

While thinking all of this, she continued staring at the door and thus could easily see the person entering.

His eyes were blue, not red, his pupils were normal as well. There was no sign of the canine like teeth and his face spoke of innocence instead of the battle-hardened killer she remembered. The entirety of his oppressive aura wasn't there, but still.

But still she just couldn't suppress shivering at the memory of that horrifying voice she had heard back then.

To her dismay, he chose that moment to speak.

" **Hey**."

It was not a voice one would associate with the boy's happy expression. It was the deep, growling voice of a monster.

Hearing that voice again, her mind went blank.

***Two weeks prior***

The forest of death

Tayuya watched as Kimimaro, in disguise, went off to "take care" of some unfortunate chunin-wannabes. She almost let out her obligatory complaint, before stopping herself, having remembered just who she was in company of.

"Tayuya-chan" her master hissed "Are you ready? I need absolute calm to have a _nice long_ talk with Sasuke-kun"

"Y-Yes Orochimaru-sama!" she cursed herself for stuttering, before she closed her eyes momentarily to focus on her target's chakra.

Not wasting any more time, Tayuya jumped away towards where she could feel the Uchiha's chakra. She soon caught up with him and his group, consisting of a pink haired girl and an orange-wearing blonde.

The moment she got the group into view, she took out her flute and started playing.

The melody was fast, and far less sinister than what she usually would play - not that it didn't still sound threatening. As the song continued, it gained more tempo, and became somewhat foreboding as she started to send chakra with the tunes.

Illusion: False danger

When it hit, the effects were instantaneous. Sasuke continued on, completely oblivious to his teammate's reaction, while said teammates avoided non-existent attacks.

Tayuya watched Orochimaru and the Uchiha leave, before looking back to the other two - just to stare directly into two red eyes with slit like pupils.

Illusion: Friend of my enemy

Immediately switching her tune, she looked on as the pink haired girl - pinkie - attacked the orange-clad boy. Just for her to get knocked out by a hit to the neck.

Tayuya growled a bit, annoyed that she had given her a nickname for nothing.

However she soon had to focus again as the blond one spawned twenty-something shadow clones. Not having the luxury to awe at the amount of chakra one would need for that, her tune changed as she immediately cast another genjutsu.

Demonic Illusion: Great Disturbance

A slight grin formed on her face as ten of them ran into trees and dispelled with a satisfying "poof". And the shithead was down a few clones.

Her enemy wouldn't make it that easy for her however.

The remaining clones touched a spot on their left arm, and she could feel her jutsu breaking. Over a dozen pairs of deep blue eyes looked at her with a determination she would never admit to feel quite unnerving.

Instantly she tried again, just to be completely blocked, the blonde seemingly not even needing a hand seal.

She frowned. No one with that much chakra should have the control to break any of her's. Much less a genin.

Then her sensitive hearing picked up steps.

She hadn't moved since the beginning. Big mistake, normally at least - but she wouldn't need tactics for a genin.

A clone running up the tree. Handful of kunai for him.

He avoided the first few. One lightly grazed his arm, making a bit of blood drip out. The original then.

A clone jumped at her, attempting an axe kick.

Turn slightly to avoid leg. Stab with kunai.

The original came up, kunai ready. Jump backwards.

A kick to her back. She gets thrown of course, barely managing to stick to the tree she crashed against. The real one was making his way towards her.

She felt the tingly feeling at the back of her neck.

Tayuya clashed with the original, twirling in the air to avoid his punch and stabbed his arm with a kunai. She used her flute like a club, hitting him in the side, he winced in pain but still managed to scratch her left arm with a shuriken

A slight stinging spread along her back.

Someone tries to grab her, but she rips her arm free, rough enough to pop the clone with the movement. This however made her miss the tree, sending her falling to the ground. Although she managed to somewhat cushion her fall, her head still hit a tree trunk when she rolled the momentum off.

As she shook her head to stop the insistent ringing, a finger softly moved along the same arm that had been attacked before.

She instantly froze up.

And not because of fear, shock, or surprise.

Neither because of the feeling that had spread and now felt like the back of her neck and shoulders was burning.

No, she simply couldn't move. At all.

"While that was a decent fight the ending was kind of anticlimactic, wasn't it?" he said in a childish tone, cradling his injured arm with his fine one and a pout on his face.

He was mocking her. Some god damn brat was mocking her.

Well fuck that.

The dam broke. From her curse mark jagged, zigzag lines started to spread over her body. The power she had been granted spread through her limbs. Although still restricted, she noticed her ability to move slowly returning to her. Standing up from the crouch she landed in, Tayuya grabbed a kunai from her pouch.

"You undergrown fucker are going to fucking regret ever fuc-"

Before her sentence was even finished, she turned completely immobile again, just to be forced to stare into the happy eyes of the dumbly grinning idiot in front of her, the seriousness in his eyes now having completely vanished.

"Ne, Nee-chan? What am I going to regret?"

Tayuya was furious. Using the curse mark at all against a genin was bad enough - not to mention the second stage - however she would never let herself get taunted by some random brat. The repercussions could be dealt with later, at this moment all she wanted was to brutally murder him.

The lines that covered her body thickened to the point her skin became completely black , her eyes turned golden and she felt as the horns grew out of her head. Glaring bloody murder, she stepped in.

A punch to the gut, making his body fold around her fist.

A knee to the chin. His mouth spew blood as his body was rocked backwards.

A step forward, a kunai to the heart. All before he even hit the floor.

Not managing to land properly, he fell down and rolled up in a fetal position, coughing up blood with every pained breath.

"So this is all?" she asked, a mocking tone evident in her voice "Really fucking disappointing - I can't believe I went all out for you jackass kid." she accentuated the end of the sentence with a kick to the ribs - and got rewarded by a satisfying … "poof?"

Not the sound of bones cracking, the sound of a leg impacting flesh but a simple "poof". - the sound she had heard a dozen times the last few minutes - that of a shadow clone dispelling.

Shocked for a moment, she only twirled around when the sound of somebody landing on the forest floor resounded behind her.

A mistake.

Tayuya stopped mit motion when his eyes met hers. His eyes showed no emotion, which contrasted heavily with the sadistic expression on other parts of his face. The slitted pupils were back, surrounded by gleaming red eyes. Accentuating the look were long fangs she clearly saw in the demonic grin he gave her - as well as an orange aura that began forming around him.

"So this is your best?" his voice changed as he spoke, becoming a deep demonic growl that definitely shouldn't be produced by a human mouth " **Then I'll have to get serious as well.** "

And her world went dark.

*O*O*O*O*

"Hey" the boy tilted his head "You still there?"

Tayuya reeled back, the tension that had built in her body suddenly dissipating. She clutched a kunai in her hand, her other moving to the shuriken pouch.

"Hey hey girl - I'm not here to fight. Just stay calm.." his pupils momentarily turned again, giving Tayuya a flash of their red color "...and this doesn't need to get ugly."

She continued to stare at him with contempt, not even flinching at the small amount of demonic chakra that momentarily filled the room.

Sighing, shithead - although she didn't want to imagine what would happen to her if she actually called him that right now - sat down on the opposite side of the table, placing his elbows on it and motioning for her to do the same.

Begrudgingly putting away her weapons, Tayuya carefully moved to her chair, sitting with her hands resting on her knees.

While on the outside, she had managed to put up a facade, her mind was rumbling. Her feelings were a mess - her body was shaking in a combination of anticipation and fear.

Him shifting the position he sat in pulled her out oh her mind.

He took a deep breath. In. And out.

The boy stretched his arm towards her, as if telling her to do the same.

Still completely rigid, Tayuya just sat there, her eyes boring into his, unmoving - at least until an enormous wave of chakra hit her out of her stupor, almost making her jump back.

Just now noticing his gesture, she took a breath. In. Out.

Grabbing her knees in her hands, she used the grip to completely stop the shivering.

"So you've finally calmed down somewhat?" Tayuya just nodded meekly "So are you going to answer my questions?" Tayuya opened her mouth, before feeling the quivering of her jaw and quickly shutting it again, not trusting herself to speak properly. Insulting him wasn't the best idea at the moment. She shook her head.

The blonde boy sighed "Look, this can be way easier if you cooperate."

An irritated sigh escaped her as she heard that sentence - for what must have been the tenth time. She had no problem that the motion conveyed her annoyance perfectly

"Maybe for you, shithead.", however was meant to be a thought. The only things that stopped her from clasping her hands to her mouth before apologizing were her pride, the fear of what the snake would do if he found out, and the genuinely thoughtful face of her 'interrogator'.

"Well then..." totally ignoring her insult, he set his chin on his hands, his elbows placed on the table "Okay. You surely have some things you want to know, right?"

Tayuya hesitantly nodded, somehow even more confused at the whole situation.

"Will you answer me a few simple questions if I answer yours?"

Tayuya stopped for a moment. She hadn't heard anything of the outside in the ten days since she woke up. She didn't even know what day it was, besides if he didn't want anything to sensitive, she wouldn't be in danger anyways.

She nodded

At that movement, the boy seemed to become exceedingly happy. He pushed himself straight in his chair. "That's great!" he clasped his hands in front of him, seeming far to positive about all this. This however, didn't last long. He laid his arms back on the table and his face turned into a perfect picture of passiveness. He spoke with what sounded like slight sarcasm - something that made absolutely no sense in the situation.

"I want your name, rank and skill level, also your main skill and how long you've had the curse mark. Your age as well."

After she confirmed in her head that there was no sarcasm in the sentence's actual content, Tayuya got over the momentary shock at his seemingly unstable personality and answered.

"Tayuya, Tayuya of the north - one of Orochimaru's bodyguards" the explanation only came as she noticed a quirked eyebrow on the blonde's face "low jonin i suppose, genjutsu specialist, had it for six years and fifteen."

That was just fine with her, nothing anybody couldn't get with a bit of prying. What wasn't fine with her was the sudden surge of malevolent chakra that flooded the room.

"I don't like being lied to" his voice was bordering on demonic again and his expression was hardened.

"Wait wait wait!" Tayuya couldn't help shaking her hands defensively in front of her, her instincts screaming at her not to mess with this boy "I'm not lying!"

His eyes started to take on a red tint "Don't test my patience."

Tayuya, still shielding her face with both arms, was raking her brain for what had caused this. She hadn't lied - there was nothing to lie over, unless "I don't know my age." it wasn't really lying, but she wasn't able to think of something else that would warrant his response..

Seemingly calmed down, his face turned stoic again. "That was all?" The invisible pressure also left with his irritation.

"Yes," Tayuya managed to speak calmly again, letting out a relieved sigh despite herself.

She almost got killed because of that stupid shit. Fucking memory loss.

Her interrogator nodded slightly, seemingly to himself, then proceeded to stare at her for a while before speaking again. "Your questions?"

"What happened to the people with me?" She blurted out, not necessarily expecting an answer, and continued in a slightly hushed voice "Also who- no more like _what_ are you?"

Her opposition didn't show any visible reaction and answered immediately "Kimimaro - he was kind enough to tell his name those he attacked - escaped, however not before having killed nineteen genin and wounding two more" Tayuya winced at the information, earning herself a scowl "Even if they had been from your village, you wouldn't react that excessively - so kindly don't think you can sympathy your way out of here" visibly relaxing her expression, Tayuya shrugged, seeing no problem with trying.

He sighed "Whatever. The name's Naruto Uzumaki" he used one of his hands to scratch the whisker markings on his cheek "I think it would be better to just show you the rest."

Without her having time to question him, her vision blurred and her mind spun for a moment.

*O*O*O*O*

Tayuya looked around her. She was within the forest of death, scanning her surroundings while perched on a branch. A slight flash of light in her peripheral vision caught her eye. When her head turned toward it, she noticed that it was caused by the glowing of a sealing tag placed on the trunk of the tree. She knew that this meant she had to move. After she ripped the piece of paper off the tree, she went of into a direction that she knew to be the right one.

Tayuya idly wondered how she was so sure where to go.

She was ripped out of her wondering when a rush of sensations hit her. While she had somehow not noticed them till then, they now almost overwhelmed her. After she got over the abundant smell of grass, leaves and bark, she noticed other, more suppressed ones. A number of animals, some for people, even insects and… snakes.

She inwardly grimaced at the stench. Contrary to the others, this was something she was all too familiar with. The putrid, vomit-inducing stench of snakes. _His_ stench.

Something in the back of her mind told her that snakes usually don't smell like that.

However, before Tayuya could continue to explore her newly-enhanced senses, she landed on a branch from which she could see into a medium sized clearing. In the middle of said clearing, she saw him: The Uzumaki was kneeling on the forest floor, using a brush to write something - on the limb form of her body.

For a short moment, Tayuya was wondering if she had an out-of-body experience, however her thought process was again thrown apart when she noticed the hand she was using to lean against the tree.

Not even mentioning how it looked too masculine and also a bit too young to belong to her, but she seemed to be wearing a jacket. Not just any jacket mind you - but a light shinobi jacket… in the most devastating shade of kill-me orange.

Tayuya, being the person she is, had a very creative response to the situation.

"What the everfucking buttsoaring shitpile of a fuck?!"

That however, seems a bit excessive.

*O*O*O*O*

Naruto stood up after he finished the brush strokes. As he put away his sealing utensils, he could smell the snake sannin closing in.

He spent a brief contemplation if this was the best idea, however was interrupted by a figure leaping onto the clearing.

Orochimaru still had some scorched remains of skin from his disguise on him. His skin, however, was unblemished - it even had a slimy sheen to it.

"Now, now kid" the snake hissed more than he talked "what did your parents tell you about messing with another's property?" It was extremely uncomfortable to listen to.

"Nothing. Never met 'em" he moved his hand towards his stomach, touching his jacket with his palm.

"Then let me tea-" Orochimaru abruptly changed to an actually serious tone "You're gonna die if you do that."

Naruto had his fingers, glowing with chakra, placed along the edge of his seal, which was now visible through his clothes.

"But so will you."

There was momentary silence in the area. The snake sannin evidently wasn't used to being threatened.

As he currently was in control, Naruto decided to keep the ball rolling.

"You have something that belongs to me."

He motioned towards the unconcious girl "Seeing as we are in similar positions I want to propose a trade."

His answer was a haughty sneer "You don't actually believe I'm going to accept that, are you?"

A frown showed itself on naruto's face "No something told me you don't hold your subordinate's lives in very high regard." a slight grin split his face "A completed curse mark, however… well I think you'd be willing to hand over a bit for that."

"And why would I belive you?" the snake's voice seethed with mock, but with an undercurrent of curiosity.

"You always apply the same seal, don't you? However some survive and others don't." his foot snapped off the ground and slammed down again, the snake summon dispelling under his boot "Ever thought about why that happened?" He used his free arm to motion towards the redhead "Ever thought up a solution to it?"

While the snake sannin started to open his mouth, naruto had already carried on "Just imagine it!" the voice fit a merchant trying to sell his newest goods, it was vibrant, encouraging - and totally at odds with the situation "Whole armies with curse marks! Just imagine at all the chaos you could cause!" naruto's tone changed into a more contemplative one "Of course, they'll still only live to their thirties at most, but how many shinobi actually live that long. Plus, it's still longer than your version of it."

Orochimaru's face had switched from one of annoyance to almost visibly salviating. His voice was stoically calm."That sounds like you want an enormous compensation, kid."

"I want the kusanagi." silence prevailed for a short moment, until Naruto's merchant-voice returned "I mean, a ninjutsu lover like you doesn't necessarily need a sword, do you? Plus, no one except an Uzumaki could properly use the sword's fuinjutsu."

Orochimaru was quiet for a moment, until his head craned back, his mouth opened, to show a snake that protrude from his throat. This snake proceeded to repeat it's master's actions, producing a fairly simple looking light, double-edged blade. One of the most powerful weapons created, but so simple in design it could be confused with any ordinary blade.

The snake then proceeded to hurl the weapon past Naruto, where it impacted with a tree on the other end of the clearing with a dull thud.

The jinchuriki stepped back towards it, hand remaining on his stomach, as he moved away from the downed girl.

*O*O*O*O*

Tayuya would have liked to get angry at the scene, as she watched Orochimaru pull her onto his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, while the boy seemed more concerned with checking the kusanagi's authenticity, however her mind seemed as eerily calm as the body she currently inhabited.

Still, a mild irritation worked its way into her mind as she was forced to watch the snake sannin take off into the treeline with her body.

She briefly wondered how she ended up in Konoha's custody if these were the events that led up to it, however was snapped out of her thoughts by the sound of the Uzumaki snapping the sword in his hands.

The weapon proceeded to turn into mud - because of course it would turn to mud - and its pieces got thrown aside in order for him to start a long series of hand seals.

And then the world turned white.

The blast was positively enormous. Even 'her' body, shielded by the tree trump as it was, had to stick to it with chakra to avoid getting blown off.

The destruction was devastating.

Tayuya saw this all too clearly as, without her input, she moved towards the centre of the now expanded clearing. Bark, burnt leaves and parts of trees littered the area. Some pieces were still smoldering. The orange barrier that had shielded the blonde which remained in the clearing flickered and fell away, just as he put his palms to the floor, where eight lines of kanji spread out in all directions towards the forest.

Fuinjutsu: Eight pillars evil sealing method

The kanji didn't even stop when his hands left the floor to grasp the blade stuck in his chest. In a move that would earn him a tiny bit of recognition from Tayuya, if it turned out to actually have happened, he pulled it out from his chest, before stabbing it into Orochimaru's skull.

Said person had just finished crawling out the mouth of his previous skin, which still smoldered from the explosion, and was evidently surprised when his target could not only still move, but actually plant his own blade in his head.

The body she currently inhabited moved forward quickly, not even flinching at the clone's painful memories. As she drew closer to Orochimaru, her left hand ripped the sleeve, and the bandages beneath it, off her right arm. Her gaze was forced away from the appendage, the normal inhabitant obviously knowing the intricate markings that covered it.

As she drew closer to Orochimaru, eight pitch black rods materialised above him, of which four drove themselves into his spine and one in each limb.

The markings that covered the arm flared up in an eerie grey-blue glow, while the hand became covered in a thin layer of similarly colored flame. The palm was pressed onto the snake's body, chain-like markings spreading out and covering his body.

Uzumaki fuinjutsu: History

Orochimaru's body contorted and twisted, the symbols that now covered his body seemed to separate from it, drawing it into a vaguely spherical shape. The sphere was compressed tighter, drawn into itself by an unseen force. After mere moments, the body of one of the most powerful men alive was forced into a globe of similar size to a head, the kusanagi still stuck in it.

The object, formerly still somewhat distinguishable as a corpse, turned into a dark grey, before falling as a small cloud of dust that dispersed into nothingness before it hit the ground. The sword cluttered to the floor soon after.

Tayuya was speechless.

And not in the no-control-over-my-body sorta way, but in the finally-that-bastard-died kinda way. Because of this, she would've happily screamed out her excitement - at least mentally - however the unnatural calmness overcame her again and left her as calm as the body that had just taken the fucking kusanagi from - a now dead - Orochimaru.

Still, her calmness made her notice the clone that had stepped out of the foliage - carrying her body over his shoulder.

She half expected him to go and pick up her half-charred but somehow still alive remains. This way, she at least got to see as her body got carried away towards the edge of the forest before her vision clouded again.

*O*O*O*O*

Water. Well that's just fucking great.

After she lost her vision once more, Tayuya found herself in a wide, dark area covered in an ankle-deep layer of muddy water. Looking around - she could finally control her movement again - she noted the absurd size of whatever she had found herself in, as well as a giant iron gate, which stood seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

"Okay what kind of fuckhole of a dump is this shit?" her voice was almost swallowed by the oppressive darkness. She couldn't her a single echo.

What she did hear was an amused snort from behind her. Just that this snort carried with it a gust of wind to send the surprised girl tumbling to the floor.

Even as she pushed herself up again - idly noting that her clothing seemed to dry the moment it left the water - the complaints immediately left her tongue.

"Okay you fucke…." her mouth refused service the moment Tayuya noticed just _who_ she was going to insult, because as she turned around her eyes met a gigantic red eye with a slitted pupil - like that of a snake - or a fox.

The demon in front of her was most definitely not a snake. Her mind wasn't able of much rational thought beyond that as the full might of the Kyuubi no kitsune settled over her. The demonic presence was close enough to a physical weight that it send Tayuya's rear to meet the rocky, water-covered floor.

It's grin was disturbing. Rows of gigantic, sharp teeth formed a smirk, as it spoke with a voice even more oppressive than the one the Uzumaki used **"Now what brought you here, little ninken?"**

Of course. Of course he had to be a jinchuriki. That's just her luck.

She crawled backwards until her back met something hard. Turning her head just enough to identify it as the gate from earlier, she used it as support to push herself upright. As her hand tried to move between two of the bars, a forcefield sprung to life. Tayuya was knocked forward several meters. She landed face first, sprawled out on her front. A string of curses left her as she pushed herself up. The beast momentarily forgotten, she sent a death glare at the offending gate.

A deep snickering reminded her of the other occupant. The occupant she was now standing barely a meter away from.

As her gaze returned to the Kyuubi, her expression became a mixture of fear and remnants of annoyance - that door really was unnecessary - however it soon changed to curiosity at the next words.

" **You know, your temper reminds me of my last partner"** If it hadn't sounded so ridiculous, Tayuya would have described his expression as melancholic **"Although she had the power to back it up."** he stayed silent for a moment **"That being said I have no interest in finding out what the kid messed up for you to end up here, so I'll just send you back. Try not being pathetic."**

Tayuya contemplated if the risk was worth to insult him, however as her vision became blurry, the decision was taken from her.

*O*O*O*O*

The room's clinic white light was _not_ appreciated. It, however was the first thing that greeted her reentering of the world of the living. Soon after, the stupidly grinning face of a certain blonde came into view. Said face, however was blurred almost beyond recognition and wobbled along with the rest of the world. After a short while with no improvement, her vision seemed to just 'snap' into place again. At about the same time, a headache made itself known.

As she cradled her head in her hands, only one phrase came to mind.

"Okay...What the fuck was that?"

*O*O*O*O*

 **And that's that. Thanks for reading. Leave a review. Have a unique day.**

 **Note: I have no idea when I'll be able to update this. Don't expect regular/frequent chapters. School's a bitch.**


	2. Chapter 2 - Deal

**A/N:So.. It's been almost two months, huh? Sorry about that. I'd like to tell you that the next one will be quicker, but if I did that, my computer would most likely go and implode on me. That'd be just my luck. I'll still try though.**

 **I also want to thank you for the reviews. I did not expect to get any on the first chapter and they motivated me to the point I wrote half of this within a week of the first one. This didn't help me when I couldn't write for over a full month, so this is still late.**

 **Well, on with the show.**

*O*O*O*O*

 **I don't own Naruto.**

 **01.05.2018: minor corrections**

*O*O*O*O*

 **Chapter 2 - Deal**

"Okay... what the fuck was that?"

The boy grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of his head as he answered "I just might have dragged you a tiny bit too deep into my mindscape - that was the Kyuubi." he suddenly waved his hands frankly in front of his face and spoke with a frantic voice. "But don't tell anybody! You'll get in trouble!"

Tayuya's face morphed into the definition of a deadpan, causing the boy to sigh and mumble about how people couldn't take a joke, before he slapped himself, shook his face and straightened in his seat.

He let out a short sigh "Sorry about that. Anything else?"

Tayuya blinked. And blinked again. She sighed "Seriously?"

"Well yeah, it's kind of a big deal with execution upon violation." He stared at her for a moment "That wasn't what you were going for, was it?" he said in a contemplative tone.

"No, no it wasn't. I meant about that thing beforehand. The one with Orochimaru."

"Oh, yeah.." he suddenly became embarrassed "You know I was kind of expecting you to freak out because you met a bijuu more than because I dragged you into my memories."

Tayuya frowned at him "I am very fucking well capable of concluding that a giant, fox-shaped beast is a bijuu. Meeting one face to face is so absurd that I'd prefer to forget it ever happened, but..." she paused. At this moment, Tayuya finally completely comprehended the Uzumaki's sentence "What the fuck were you saying about your memories?"

"I dragged you into them." after a moment, Tayuya noticed that he wasn't going to continue, so she motioned for him to go on. When this just resulted in her waving her arm around uselessly, she stopped. "Are you going to explain how?"

"No."

Yeah, figures.

As she went back to staring at him her mind sorted through the information she had been given to this point. At least, until it stopped at one particular fact. Once she recognised this, Tayuya went through a multitude of emotions. If his smirk was anything to go by, a mixture of shock, happiness, disbelief and confusion looked ludicrous on her face.

As her mind went through a rollercoaster of emotions it also went through all the possible implications it would bring with itself. Her expression must have been the epitome of confusion at this point. After all, for someone as resigned as she was, the option simply didn't come up under normal circumstances.

Confusion was also what she settled on as well as what was heard in her voice when she spoke "Wait. Did _you actually_ murder Orochi-fucking-maru."

Through her life to that point, the mad scientist was always hailed as unbeatable. As if completely ignoring the absurdity that a genin beat a sannin, the blonde nodded enthusiastically and hit his chest with a fist as a happy grin spread across his face "Hell yes I did. Bastard didn't see it coming." there was obvious pride in his voice.

Tayuya stumbled over her next words "But what.. but… But how? Even if you're a jinchuriki - you're just a kid!"

He answered calmly as he ticked off reasons on his fingers "A combination of shadow clones, stealth, sealing, underestimation, a good nose and one of the most distinctive smells to ever exist." he shivered "Like seriously a corpse smells pleasant compared to that guy." his face momentarily took on a expression of pure disgust "Anyway, it was basically the perfect setup for a trap."

"And how exactly do you know his smell?"

The boy scratched his head, looking slightly abashed "Well.. I didn't know that it was him exactly, I just knew that it was a mad scientist that smelt like snakes." he shrugged "Although there aren't very many people that fit that description anyways."

Tayuya looked at him for a while in silence. There wasn't much she could ask and it didn't seem like he would speak without being prompted, so she went for what had been bugging her for a while.

She stopped herself before even opening her mouth. This was what he wanted, wasn't it.

A slight twitch of the corners of his mouth told her that her realisation was visible.

There really weren't many reasons to wait for that. At least, unless it is something that is unbelievable enough - and it was unbelievable as fuck - for her to need this information in order to even consider the prospect of accepting.

Now she wasn't dumb. She could probably just sit here for a few minutes and be certain what he wanted from her. But she was also a person that preferred things to be straightforward. She sighed. She was going to ask it at some point anyways.

"Can you prove to me that Orochimaru is dead." her voice was even, with no indication of her prefered outcome.

Orochimaru was always the reason for why she was in Otogakure. First because of gratitude, then because of fear and loyalty. She noted that the latter was mostly absent since she had her cursed mark sealed. The implications of that weren't comforting, however they weren't unexpected. Still, this left the question of what she was supposed to do if he actually was dead.

Her thought process was interrupted when the blonde unsealed something.

Without preamble, he unsheathed a sword and stuck it through the table separating them.

For all intents and purposes, it was a very bland sword. If she hadn't seen it so many times before, there was almost no chance that she'd recognise it for what it was. The fact the metal-fucking-table started korroding was just an unnecessary extra. Even only seconds after it made contact, a circular area almost reaching the furniture's edges was already covered in rust. The part where it was kept up by its handle looked like it would fail to hold it for much longer, as small pieces of corroded metal already flaked off.

It was a little known secondary ability - if you don't count its capability to cut almost anything - that, because of the aforementioned cutting power, saw use only against the strongest of defences.

More notably, it was the secondary power of the slimy slitherer's kusanagi.

He had that thing stuck down his throat pretty much all the time when he wasn't fighting, so save to say, he was most likely dead.

Tayuya sighed - she had been doing that a lot recently - and, after a bit of thought, decided to just fuck it. "Fine, I'll bite. What do you want from me?"

"I want you to work for me."

Huh. Not exactly what she had expected. "Just you?" there was some confusion in her voice "Not 'join my village' or 'change sides' but just you?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

" 'cause nobody'll miss you."

Tayuya stopped a moment "That's blunt."

He frowned "What is it with you people?" he dramatically threw his hands in the air and waved them around "First you're all like 'I want this to be over soon' or 'I'm not interested in all this unnecessary talking' or you want everything to be extremely straightforward." he pushed himself up as he slammed his hands on the table, causing the already weakened furniture to break and the legendary blade to embed itself into the stone floor.

Tayuya just managed to push her chair back far enough to not be caught under the collapsed table.

Still, his rant wasn't finished "But as soon as I start pitying you and comply with the - often unspoken - request you go all like 'What the hell it's what I asked for but it's not what wanted because you're doing it right but I didn't want you to do it that exact way' and any conversation we had to that point just goes up in smoke."

He stopped a moment and Tayuya almost thought that he was finished.

He took a deep breath.

And continued ranting "I mean what the fuck? When some civilian bastards say 'What can you little shit do to me?' then why do they always run away screaming when I start listing the ways I could kill them? I was doing what they asked me to!"

Tayuya frowned at him "You're not going to tell me you actually don't know why they run away, are you?"

He snorted, before he shook his head and his voice turned calm again "Of course I know. I have at least that much social competence. I don't, however appreciate the hypocrisy."

They glared at each other for some time. As the kusanagi had found itself in a sheath at his hip at same point, the only thing separating them were the destroyed remains of the table.

After what Tayuya guessed to have been three minutes, he pulled his chair up from where he had toppled it over and took his place on it.

Completely ignoring what just happened, he spoke in a normal, almost bored voice "So any other questions?"

By then, the redhead had had enough time to calm down, so she wasn't all too surprised at the sudden change.

"Yeah, why should I accept?"

"I really don't like threatening people." His response was random, and she just managed to get her composure before he went on.

"Should you accept, the papers will say 'After ten days of questioning, cremated following death caused by interrogation' or suicide or whatever. But you'll be alive."

"Should you decline, well" he shrugged "it's still going to stand there, just with a different amount of days. And it wouldn't be a fake."

"Didn't think you tree huggers would be willing to go that far. Always held Konoha for the lenient type."

"Oh we are, to the point of stupidity sometimes even." he didn't deny it for a moment "But I doubt the Otogakure spies share our sentiments." there was an unhealthy amount of apathy in his voice. For some reason that made it sound like he'd have no problem with going through with that.

"Why would somebody from Otogakure hate me? I don't think they had much to do with Orochimaru." in hindsight, her reaction was a bit to quick for her bluff to have a good chance.

He snorted "Your really think you're the first sound-nin I talked too? You're quite famous over there."

She snorted right back "Bluffing won't help you."

He snickered "Contrary to you, I don't need to bluff." a knowing grin found his face "Also, I hope you didn't think that my lie detecting ability was a one time use."

Yep. Fuck her life.

"I'm not going to be anybody's lackey anymore." After the snake, she didn't need a repeat performance.

"I don't want lackeys." it was spoken with finality "I want subordinates, not people that will leave at the first sign of difficulty." he let out a breath "That being said, I _need_ workforce. There's a compromise. So as long as you keep on doing your job I'll help you."

Tayuya leant back in her chair and crossed her arms.

"And how would you help me?"

He propped his elbows on his knees, as well as his face on his interlaced fingers "Can you get out of here alone? Can you escape from your former comrades? Can you survive?"

She could see the glint in his eyes "I can get you out. Hide you. Shelter you. It would be more than easy to have them believe you to be dead. It's a lot easier to stay away from somebody if the aren't searching for you, isn't it?"

Silence settled itself over the two of them as she contemplated her options.

Although there weren't many of them, all things considered. Even if Orochimaru wasn't dead, returning after failing is an almost assured way to rectify that.

Tayuya let out a long breath "Okay. What would I need to do."

The male shrugged, returning to a more nonchalant pose "Miscellaneous."

The redhead blinked, something she was used to being taken as a question, however her interrogator didn't react until she voiced it.

"I don't have a lot of people, so I never know where I'd need somebody next."

Tayuya groaned. This was going to be annoying.

"You're not leaving me much of a choice, are you?" she continued on before he could add something "But whatever. I accept."

He turned still for several moments. His pupils bore into her's. There was no emotion in them, just an eerie calm that looked as if it seeped out of those ocean-blue eyes to infect the whole room. He seemed to contemplate something. Then he spoke. Although there was no indication for him speaking in any special way, his voice sounded - for lack of a better word to describe it - ancient.

" _We do not need to speak promises with our words."_

What the hell was that supposed to mean? Was she supposed to give an answer to that?

Tayuya stopped to think for a moment.

Yes. Yes she was supposed to answer that. And not just any answer, there was a _right_ one.

She didn't know where it came from or what it meant. She just _knew,_ instinctively that there was only one right answer. And she knew that answer, as if it was ingrained into her blood.

" _For our words are promises by themselves."_

Her tone was - again, somehow - ancient, although it sounded a bit 'younger' than the one the boy had used.

Anyway, contrary to Tayuya, who was just shocked by the situation, the person sitting opposite her seemed to be extraordinarily pleased. A slight, true smile formed on his face, as he mumbled:"So there's not just me."

As quickly as it came, it disappeared into his seemingly happy facade. Even through his smirk, he spoke somewhat calmly "I'll send someone to pick you up. Just stay here and don't pull attention to yourself. Should be here in an hour or two."

His outburst moved his chair so far back that he actually had to come towards her in order to reach the door. He left the room, keeping the door a crack open behind him.

***1.5 hours later***

Since then, the now ex-sound-nin had a lot of time to think about their conversation, however no matter how long she mulled about it, there just wasn't much she could decide without knowing more.

A slight knock came from the door.

She was already standing, so it only took a moment to get into a ready position, one of her hands palming a kunai, the other held defensively in front of her.

The metal door swung open, and in came a girl that felt awfully familiar to her. She wore loose pants, a long-sleeved kimono top and had her black hair in a high ponytail, held together by a violet ribbon.

Yeah, she knew that girl. The haughty expression was missing, her hair was significantly shorter - now only reaching her shoulders - and a kimono, not to mention one with long sleeves just felt out of place. That being said, Tayuya knew every somewhat promising girl in Oto - not that there were many - and that face was very familiar.

"Kin?"

There was palpable surprise on the girl's face "You know my name?"

Tayuya snorted at her "I trained you for a while, why wouldn't I?"

Some of the confidence that seemed to fit her face so well surfaced "Well when you spent four months with somebody without getting called by your actual name once, you tend to get that impression."

The redhead suppressed the urge to bring up some of those nicknames "So?"

"So Naruto-sama send me to get you." ah, straight to the point. Tayuya idly bemused that she was the one dancing around the ball for once. Not wanting to waste anymore time, she nodded in response.

"Just stay inconspicuous and follow me."

Leaving the T&I department was way simpler than she expected. The room she was in was one of the closest to the exit, and the scarred man at the control point, after he gave Kin a scroll for 'the kid', let them pass without trouble.

The two of them were silent until they reached the chained fence of probably the most dangerous training area in Konoha - the forest of death.

"So any reason why we're going in there again?"

Kin undid the lock of one of the area's gates "Well it would be hard to keep you out of public with you staying in the village propper." her somewhat neutral tone soon left for a sarcastic one "Plus, it's a nice place once you get to know it a bit."

A snort left Tayuya's mouth "Yeah, sure."

The dark-haired girl motioned her in, before closing the gate behind them.

They took to the trees toward the central tower. A slight ringing sound left Kin's sleeves.

"So how did you end up with blondie." Tayuya started up a conversation as her eyes scanned floor and trees for one of the myriad of deadly things that inhabited the forest.

The other girl sighed "You're never going to stop with the nicknames, are you?"

"Doesn't answer my question, Bella." a smirk formed on her face.

Said smirk seemed to diplease Kin even more.

She huffed "My team was assigned to kill one of his squadmates." she was obviously happy to lead the conversation away from its previous topic "This teammate turned out to have a fresh curse mark. That combined with the field of traps we had to cross in order to reach them" she shuddered and muttered something about 'tripwire hell'. Kin shook her head "Long story short, the boy woke up just as we'd reached them, one teammate got killed, the other is still unconscious and I plus the berserked Uchiha got taken out by Naruto-sama, who had just returned from taking out Orochimaru."

It looked like she wanted to continue but Tayuya cut her off "By the way, what got you all deferential? Only person you ever called '-sama' was the snake bastard and that was only because of what happened to people who didn't."

Kin turned to look her in the eyes, both of them easily maneuvering from branch to branch just through peripheral vision "Have you ever seen him agitated?" she turned to look forwards again as the sound of bells could again be heard "Have you ever _felt_ his anger?"

Tayuya stocked and stopped on the next tree trunk, her guide taking the one on front of her. They were once more discerning each other.

She had, hadn't she? Then it came back to her. The oppressiveness, the sense of danger. The fear. She shuddered "Yeah." it was more said to herself than to anybody else "I do… but-" she paused, unsure of what to say.

"But it doesn't feel like it's him, right."

They shared a look.

"I don't know how to feel about that."

Kin shrugged "Me neither, but I got a similar impression." and just like that the notion escaped her again.

Tayuya had to consciously force together images of the blonde boy and the red-eyed.. Well she wasn't even sure what to call him then. Before she completed it, Kin's voice cut into her thought process. "Maybe it has something to do with how he seems to switch moods with no forewarning?"

The redhead rubbed her temples "I don't know. I really don't, but I feel like I forgot about something else too, though I'm not entirely sure."

She briefly closed her eyelids in thought "I remember being extremely confused, but couldn't tell you shit about what caused that."

Kin stared at her for a moment with an confused expression "You know how about we just give up trying to understand him for a while? We're not going to get to the tower at this rate."

Tayuya breathed out audibly "Yeah, we can fuck around later."

They continued on towards the training field's centre, accompanied only by the sound of their bodies cutting through air.

Brown eyes searched surroundings, that had stay suspiciously deadly-thing-free for their journey, while she contemplated their discussion.

It really wasn't any less confusing in hindsight, though at least there was somebody else affected by it. The boy did seem unstable to her, but not to the point of personality disorder. Even then, an observer wouldn't separate it to this extreme.

The feeling she got was..

"Kyuubi." Kin's voice cut into her thoughts "Maybe that's what happens when he uses its chakra."

Tayuya thought for a while "No, but it's similar."

Kin looked at her with a sort of mocking disbelief "I'm sorry, I didn't know you met the Kyuubi in person and can tell what it's chakra feels like. After all it's not like it's been sealed since before you remember."

"Oh, I have. Just didn't get time to tell you yet." Tayuya grinned at her.

The bell user shook her head "Yes I'm sure you have." she turned forward again "Whatever. We're here."

The two ex-sound kunoichi dropped to the ground and walked through the clearing which contained the tower.

The fucking huge tower.

She had expected it to be quite large, as she had only seen it from a distance, however this was just plain ridiculous. Big enough to have several building-sized entrances as well as dozens of meters of wall between them, the many story tall building was more than imposing to look at, even if it's architecture felt slightly outdated.

She followed Kin through one of the openings, through an entrance hall and into a literal maze of corridors. They seemed to avoid the larger rooms, snaking around them and going both up and down at seemingly random intervals.

After a short walk, the two girls reached a closed door. Kin pressed the back of her right hand to where the handle would normally be, and a clicking sound reverberated through the room. It opened inwards, revealing a stairway down into a cave-like area.

The door shut behind them as they walked down.

All of this was done in silence, to the point where Tayuya found herself staring at one of her short-time students multiple times. A lot must have changed for Kin not to initiate a conversation in all this time. Or she was just that scared of the boy.

Said boy was also who they met in the large cave the path led into. Three of him - presumably clones - sat cross-legged and with closed eyes on an underground lake that covered one third of the floor. Three more stood around who Tayuya guessed to be the real one, drawing a certain seal along his right arm - their progress, however, seemed awfully slow.

He was situated on a chair on a dry, flat part of the otherwise rough room.

"We're here, Naruto-sama." Tayuya blinked at the girl. There was obvious respect in her voice.

The blonde dispelled the clones working on his arm and turned to face them. Instead of the attire she had seen him in earlier, he wore simple dark shinobi pants with a blindingly orange shirt. He spoke to them as he re-wrapped his bandages. "Hey." he turned to Tayuya, giving an exaggerated bow - pretty impressive considering he didn't stand up for it - in her direction "And welcome to your home for the near future. I hope that my humble abode isn't too far below your usual standards."

Tayuya answered with a lame 'Hey', choosing to ignore most of what he said, and stared at the smiling boy for a few awkward moments. "So.."

"So" he repeated.

Kin brought in another chair and handed him the scroll before leaving again.

The Uzumaki motioned for her to sit while he started to read the message. "So this is about your part."

"What part?" she spoke with a calm voice, however the suddenness

The boy threw his hands in the air "I was getting to that! No need to interrupt me." he scowled at her "While T&I owed me for a few things, they still have to report to old man hokage, and a favor from him is a lot harder to get."

"So?"

"So I'll need all the information you have."

Now that was bad. Info only someone of her standing could get being leaked would lead people to investigate, which was attention she really didn't need. "I can't just…"

He cut her off with a dismissive hand gesture "You can. You're officially dead. A ghost. They'll just believe that you spilled before your death. No harm done, except to your reputation."

"And what if they investigate further? At some point.."

He stared at her blankly, and his monotone tone cut her off as if she wasn't even speaking "No. The person that was supposed to interrogate you, and the only other person in the know, is Morino Ibiki. Head of T&I. If he said that a prisoner died during interrogation, then they died. Wouldn't be the first time that happened anyway." the last part was said with a hint of amusement, a bit of emotion momentarily seeping back into his personality "Anyway, there's no danger to your person unless you decide to leave here, in which case I'd help you stay low in exchange for a few jobs. I happen to have quite a bit of influence in the information cycles."

Tayuya sighed, but nodded in a tired manner as she sat down on the floor.

This would be a long night.

*O*O*O*O*

Six hours.

Six _fucking_ hours.

She had had no idea just how much she knew about the sannin's work and village. The first three hours were used up listing outposts and connections, as well as manpower data and defensive measures, leaving out just enough to still have a bargaining chip left over.

The remainder of the evening - although it was most certainly night by now - was used up describing scientific projects and tests.

While talking about said "tests" - some of the most grueling and vomit-inducing mockeries of medicine - she noticed something else.

He hadn't even flinched.

Some of those experiments had her, even hardened to the bastard's cruelty as she was, cringing at the memory.

He, however just spent the entire time dragging his brush over paper, filling two scrolls with calm and measured strokes.

She took in a deep breath after her recount of the most recent procedure she knew of and stayed silent. Her mind needed some time to calm down after all that.

After the Uzumaki stared at her for a while, he noticed that she wasn't going to say anything more and rolled up his scroll. The boy went on to write something in a third, smaller one and bundled the three of them together before placing them on the ground.

After staring into the air for a bit, he nodded to himself. "Right." he turned towards her with a snap, and the motion was so sudden that Tayuya found herself momentarily startled.

She recovered after he spent several seconds just looking into her general direction. "What's right?"

The Uzumaki began snapping his fingers as he gained a look of intense concentration on his face. Even as he spoke, it was as if he was still searching for something "I'm expecting that info you held back before we part ways, just so you know."

Tayuya nodded dumbly as his other hand joined in on the snapping, out of sync with the first. It actually started to sound like a melody. The concentration slowly left his face, letting it settle into a calmer expression. By the time he started humming, Tayuya was sure that he was reciting the melody of some song.

Then he suddenly stopped and his head snapped towards her - which moved his vision by barely one degree, as he was basically looking at her this entire time - as he seemed to remember what had plagued him all this time "Right! I have to take care of the bullshit seal." He stood up, unsealed a brush and walked over to her. When she moved to stand up, he placed a hand on her shoulder "I'll need you to stay still for this."

"You know, I want to know what kind of potentially lethal things you put on my body"

"You wouldn't have agreed to this if you knew all the things it did."

She snorted "Wouldn't have had a choice back then."

He sighed as he walked around her "Whatever. I'll tell you the general gist of it, but I need to actually start with it to find out what is necessary." his brush began drawing around her curse mark "So, in order." a small itching sensation, reminiscent although weaker than the one her mark caused before its sealing made itself known.

He counted down things as his brush moved along her shoulder "Destruction of decision and emotion influencing components, change of energy distribution type from intrusive to general, redistribution of controlling necessities from 'soulpiece' to 'host'" he put his writing tool away and placed his palm over the seal. She felt a slight amount of chakra being channeled into it. "Destruction of 'soulpiece', replacement of filter old 'replenishing' with filter new 'permanent', stabilization of seal."

A short, burning feeling spread through her shoulder, before being replaced by the feeling - and she had no idea who or how she knew what a scream _felt_ like - of a person shouting in pain just as a twisted, looming feeling was literally destroyed by one of pure malice until all of it faded away in under a second.

He took a deep breath "Well that's that. Want to know how the seal functions?"

She ignored the implication that he didn't know that before working on her and instead told him to get on with it. She passed out when the mark was originally applied to her, but the sudden exhaustion she felt now was unpleasant in an entirely different way. There was barely enough concentration left to understand what he said.

"Apparently, it uses some weird form of energy that would usually kill you if employed incorrectly. A piece of Orochi-teme's soul powered a filter which made it usable and distributed it forcefully through a secondary chakra system. I replaced the snake's soul with a bit of bijuu chakra and changed the distribution to be dependent on your normal chakra flow. It will probably be a bit weaker until you learn to control it."

Tayuya nodded absently. Fuck she was getting tired.

The blonde took a look at her "Well, you seem as if you'll fall over any second now." he stood up and waved her after him "I'll show you your room. I'll probably have a job for you by tomorrow evening, so you can rest till then."

*O*O*O*O*

 **And that's that. Thanks for reading. Leave a review. Have a unique day.**

 **Note: Currently, Naruto's personality is a bit… unstable. It's what I came up with when I considered Naruto's (changed) background. I am, however, not at all experienced in writing anything of the sort (as I am with most things around writing), so you'll have to tolerate me trying out a few things. Or tell me how to do it right. That'd work too.  
Also, I'll probably have to nerv the third's crystal ball and Shisui's eyes. They'd be just way too OP if Hiruzen/Danzo would have actually used them.**


	3. Chapter 3 - Red, meet Violet

**Chapter rewritten: March 2019**

 **Shorter than the original version, but it feels a bit better.**

*O*O*O*O*

 **I don't own Naruto.**

*O*O*O*O*

Tayuya felt tired and sluggish, however when she woke up, her eyes snapped open effortlessly, her vision focused and she hauled herself into a sitting position without any strain.

It was how she was used to waking up, reducing the time between reflexes ingrained to a point where she could literally do them in her sleep and actual alertness to a split second. With how her body was feeling she really shouldn't have been capable of it.

A quick glance around told her that it worked because she wasn't awake - not really anyway. She was sitting on a small, grey, and dimly lit patch of floor, surrounded by that comfortable darkness she remembered from the one time she was here before. At the time, the blackness was disrupted by thin, constricting veins of red, which now seem replaced by a myriad of spots a slightly different shade of black from their background.

The spots seemed random, moving slowly but without goal, lines briefly connecting them and fading away shortly after. They felt foreign, but contrary to the veins, which were strictly fixed as if to hold her, these seemed to just be there, neither exerting control nor being controlled.

*O*O*O*O*

Her eyes opened, this time with the sluggishness she was feeling, and the weak, slow motion she used to pull herself out of the bed didn't help either. It was times like this she regretted not being one of those people that could wake up while seeming to still be asleep.

And not only because she had personally borne witness to what even an inexperienced jackass could do if people don't notice him waking up.

As she got to her feet, still in her clothes from the day before, she surveyed the sparse bedroom. Nothing had changed, at least as long as you ignored the large box which had been shoved into her room and was blocking half the entrance.

Deciding to leave it for later, she slunk by it and into the corridor. The long room was dimly lit, most of the light coming from the cave-like entrance area. On the other end, however, was what Tayuya guessed to be a common room, and she could hear somebody moving in it, even with her exhaustion and hunger addled mind. As she stepped closer to it, there came some clarity to the sounds.

They were obviously caused by someone who was used to walking quietly with how soft they seemed, but also someone far heavier than her - probably an adult. Well, it wasn't like she expected to be the only person here. Moving into the room, her hand found the switch, causing the decent sized room to be filled with blinding light. Her eyes were still lidded, so she was less affected by the sudden brightness than the room's other occupant, at least going by the high-pitched squeal they let out. It was kind of surprising when it didn't hurt her sensitive ears at all, but something she could get used to. After all, there are times where the best hearing becomes the worst hearing, at least subjectively.

Ignoring the woman, Tayuya walked over to what looked like, and turned out to be, a fridge. Inside there were a few packages of cup ramen and milk, as well as a note reading 'No keeping poisons in the fridge'. Taking the milk and a box of cereal which was standing on the nearby table, she got to getting something into her body. She wasn't too worried over poisons, as between her curse mark and repeated exposure she had an immunity to most of the dangerous ones.

She spared a glance for the purple-haired woman, who was rubbing her eyes while she mumbled obscenities, mostly directed at Tayuya. A bit later, she stopped and groggily got her own breakfast - a literal fistfull of dango sticks, held like some might a whole holster of senbon at once.

"So you're the little hellfire Naruto brought.." it was more of a reflex than conscious action that caused Tayuya's spoon to fly into the offender's face - who caught it with her _tongue_ of all things.

"Hey, no need to get so emotional" she smirked, somehow sounding normal even while holding cutlery with her tongue "you just had to tell me you prefer 'Hell-chan'."

"I'm not interested in being called anything by random shit pissin' hustlers." for a second there Tayuya thought she was in front of a disguised Orochimaru. She wasn't getting that adrenaline out of her system any time soon.

Still, her now clear state of mind let her properly take in the other person - also known as Anko Mitarashi, a certain snake's former student. It explained the tongue, at least. In these short moments, the woman had already wolfed down her meal and was now lying on a piece of carpet barely wide enough to fit her, but with a length which reached from one side of the room to the other.

"How are you that calm with a stranger in the room?" Tayuya felt like she was chiding a child with how the woman behaved.

She chuckled as a small snake stuck its head out of her coat "Don't worry about me, little one! I might seem all alone but one such as me may never be assumed to be without aid, for all too many would cry in delight at a chance to help this wonderful, sexy, Anko Mitarashi!" the energetic way in which the snake mistress spoke was completely at odds with how she was slumped bonelessly to the floor.

"I already knew who you are, snaketits." Tayuya was not in the mood for this and her tone carried that sentiment perfectly, causing the mentioned person to pout.

She sighed "You know, Helly, I've been around short enough to never have learned the old 'Uzumaki don't break agreements' myth, or the even more idiotic 'they also won't stab you in the back' one." which absolutely didn't answer her question "But I've also been told by a little blond fox where those shitty stories came from - the fact that Uzumaki don't betray each other."

Tayuya frowned at her "Can you not tell me a story and get to the goddamn point?"

The dango-eater pushed herself up onto her elbows and lifted one arm to point at the redhead "You. Uzumaki. Naru-chan. Uzumaki." she flopped down again "Uzumaki trust each other far easier than should be normal, I mean, you just agreed to work for him on your first meeting, didn't you? And as you work for him, you won't attack me, because I work with him. Simple, eh?"

No. But it wasn't what Tayuya was interested in.

"So, I'm an Uzumaki?"

Even though she couldn't see it, Tayuya practically heard the way snaketits - oh how she loved that nickname - rolled her eyes "No shit sherlock, you think that hair color is normal? You ever seen somebody with what goes for 'red' hair among _normal_ people? They're closer to brown than what you have there."

"And that means I can't fucking distrust him?" there was a strain in her voice from apparently having her choice taken from her - just like with the pedophile.

She got a sigh for that "No, you see, as far as I know it's some kinda' bloodline stuff. Some people get fancy eyes, some get a cool technique, Uzumaki don't have to worry about their fellows betraying them. And I don't have to worry at all because I could kill you with ease, besides." she turned on her side, eyes finding Tayuya, completely ignoring the second part of her comment "It's not like they can't go against each other, it's just that they keep to whatever agreements they made, no backstabbing necessary."

"Which means that I can't leave because I promised to help him." well it wasn't the worst thing, she could stand a bit of intelligence work - because really, what was he going to use someone who's basically a missing-nin for otherwise?

"And he can't, say, cash in your bounty - in case you're wondering, yes you've got one by now." the woman perked up as her gaze wandered towards the corridor, just as Tayuya began hearing slight footsteps "Speak of the monster and he shall appear." her voice turned childish, and a lot louder as she shouted "Naru-chan, you're back!"

Even with how that shout made Tayuya think the woman was going to go tackle the boy, she didn't seem to have much interest in getting up from the floor.

"Oh shut up, Anko." he moved towards the couch before stepping over the side and falling face-first onto it.

"Oh it's just mister grumpy, sorry I mistook you."

"Oh _shut up_ Anko,", he repeated. The blonde sat up and, while pulling away his mask - a dark grey and intricately carved fox mask - met eyes with the complaining woman "I was stuck in a council meeting for _hours_ , with a third of the people there spending all their time trying to get me out of the room."

Tayuya held back a sigh, and spoke over the Mitarashi's retort "You have that job for me?"

The question seemed to blow life - and childishness - into him again, as he jumped off the couch with renewed energy and smiled at her encouragingly "I do! It might however," he scratched the back of his head in what she guessed to be a nervous tick "involve just a _tiny_ bit of making a backstabbing clack-box die."

Assassination? She could deal with that. "No problem."

"Great!" he seemed _far_ too cheerful all of a sudden "The main part'll be message running, you know how that usually works?" he paused for a bit, but continued at her nod "But only for a few weeks, until I can get a replacement for the guy who's there right now. I'm not going to waste someone trustworthy on something so menial for long."

It felt weird being thought of as trustworthy, but also seemed to satisfy her in some way, as if they were meant to be capable of trusting each other. It was somewhat calming, she had to admit.

More bullshit bloodline stuff, probably.

"It's only going to happen in a few days or so, I'll need to find a way to get you off the radar first." he had continued speaking even while she inwardly wondered about her situation "That being said I might have some things for you to deliver in the village."

Tayuya sent a speculative glance towards the Mitarashi and was about to ask when he continued on, seeming to have sensed her confusion "Jobs'll come either from me or through Kin or another runner, if Anko ever tells you to do something assume it's a prank."

The women made an audible pouting sound at that.

"Sure, wasn't going to, but.. that's it?"

His exuberance seemed to fall ever so slightly at that, however he build himself back up quickly "It is! Mostly." he didn't move to do anything else for a while, seeming content to wait until he was asked to clarify.

Tayuya blinked at him before shrugging "Whatever. What are the other things I need to know?"

At her blank tone - her adrenaline was fading remarkably quickly - he deflated visibly as he slouched up to her "Yeah, yeah. Your equipment's in the box in your room, give me your hand, runner's sigil." he grabbed her right hand as she moved it to him and gently pressed a palm onto its back. After a brief flash of chakra, he turned and stepped away again.

Tayuya carefully pushed chakra into the seal to examine the circle and the spiral symbol contained within. As he spoke, she watched it fade completely, not even leaving a hint at its presence. "Standard stuff, flash it for recognition, it works in the Land of Fire and all the minor countries, don't let anybody touch it, don't let anybody examine it. It's also the key for the door to this base as well as those on the dead drops. Understood?"

A completely invisible seal was pretty far from 'standard' by most definitions, but after working under Orochimaru and what he considered normal for so long she wasn't even fazed.

Tayuya mumbled her agreement, and was quickly distracted by snaketits' voice "Hey, the girl's not black anymore.." she paused for a moment, meeting Tayuya's confused stare "Should I call this version of you 'Normalfire' or 'no-hell'? Ah, decisions decisions…"

"The fuck?" at the woman's refusal to be helpful she turned to the boy.

He chuckled slightly "Your seal doesn't work like it did before, it should be closer to a second chakra source now. It's going to be a while before you stop drawing on it subconsciously. Those horns you get were just receding when I came in."

Tayuya stared at him disbelievingly. No, she wasn't even going to ask. Instead, she dug into her chakra and dragged a bit of it into her arm, very slowly going through the motions to reinforce one's muscles. At the beginning it was barely there, but as the draw increased she could feel herself tugging on another power source.

She watched in fascination as her arm first slightly darkened before a black wave spread over it, the power she had become so used to coming with it. It was nice having more options, but she'll have to work on fine control from now on. She hadn't even attempted to draw from the mark.

Still, it gave her an idea…

The redhead pointedly ignored the way the room's other two occupants were staring at her amusedly, and instead focused on doing something almost instinctual, but something she could never get her cursed mark to assist with - empowering her hearing.

There was the accustomed twitch as sounds around her grew more distinct, as she started to hear some things that weren't even in the normal range, and how she was now capable of pinpointing most of their origins.

And then there was more.

If the original difference was a twitch, this was a quake. It felt as if she could hear everything as the wall of sounds hit her.

There were the shinobi moving around above, the trees swinging in the breeze - and she thought she would never say anything anywhere close to that poetic. But most importantly she could clearly hear the other's hearts.

There were breathing techniques that only barely disturbed the air.

There were clothes that didn't rustle.

There were even methods to change the _rhythm_ of your heart.

But you couldn't just stop your heart from beating.

Now normally, that isn't a problem. Your body and your clothes muffle its sound so far that between the environment and their own heart, even the most developed auditory sensors - like Tayuya - couldn't reliably find one through it.

But even as she turned her head to look at which room Kin was in on the other end of the hallway, and as she noticed the group of three curriers slow down through dozens of walls and meters of rock, the distortions and echos not bothering her one bit, she decided that 'normal' just wasn't the word to use anymore.

Also, Kin had apparently taken up carving if the sounds were anything to go by.

Her eyesight snapped back into focus when a shiver ran down her spine. Her eyes then proceeded to snap onto the boy in front of her. And onto his feral grin.

As he spoke, his slightly elongated fangs showed "It's quite the elaborate gift, isn't it?" Tayuya decided it was worth more to suppress the shivers than to speak at that point "But we won't be this benevolent all the time, so while you will have paid your dues for this one soon, when you need assistance again it will have more of a cost to it." she had successfully suppressed the memories of _his_ suffocating aura - until that point at least.

When it receded, she decided to follow Snaketits' lead this time and completely ignored what had happened. The blonde himself relaxed his expression easily and went off to fall onto the couch. He fell asleep almost instantly.

"Don't worry Helly, that's normal for him. You get used to it."

"The sleeping or the fangs?"

She didn't have to turn around to know there was a smug grin on the Mitarashi's face "Yes."

She still groaned, though.

*O*O*O*O*

Tayuya tugged her new outfit on. Mainly in a grey-brown colour, it was simple but functional clothing that would pass as something a civilian might wear in a pinch - as long as nobody looked too closely at least. The cloak obviously wouldn't.

Dark grey, hooded, thin yet she knew they were equally viable in snow as they were in a desert. They were _the_ stereotypical clothing for anybodies' message runners - mostly because they were just that useful. And if she remembered correctly - she took a kunai and dragged its blade down the cloth - cut-proof too.

She tilted the mask - an identical fox mask to the one the Uzumaki wore - in her hands, but decided against putting it on at that moment. Instead, she sat sideways across her bed and lent her head against the wall, closing her eyes and calling upon her chakra once more as she listened to the sounds the world made around her.

It was wrong to say that drawing on her secondary chakra became easier - the problem with it was that it was too easy to begin with - be she slowly got more control over it. It was still slightly starling when the full empowerment hit her, and she started just idly following the movements of everyone in her range.

It was like this that Kin found her later on, giving her a look for how she was called into the room before even knocking.

"What?"

Kin snickered at that, most likely because Tayuya couldn't be bothered to actually sound confrontational right now "You learned a new trick."

"So?"

The black haired girl held up a scroll "Naruto-sama wrote up the message." she twirled the tube around her finger as she spoke "Designated for one Sasuke Uchiha." she stopped her spinning and tapped a band of sealwork holding it closed "And _only_ Sasuke Uchiha."

She completely ignored the insinuation as she got up, still far too calm to get annoyed "Cool. On it. Any guess for where he is?"

If Kin was disgruntled from her lack of reaction, she didn't show it, and instead held out a piece of paper. "Here."

Tayuya accepted the list, and pushed it back into Kin's hand after looking it over briefly. "Got it." she fastened her mask and pulled her hood up, patting the other girl on her shoulder as she walked past "See 'ya, Bell'a."

She could easily hear Kin groan as she walked out of the base.

*O*O*O*O*

 **I don't know why but I'm trying to be humorous at times and fail absurdly at it.**

 **On another note, I'm back! In a way at least. I'm still not completely finished with all the things that real life decided to throw at me, but I'm getting there.**

 **That being said! Leave a review! And thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4 - Konoha

Chapter 4: Konoha

*O*O*O*O*

Traveling through Konoha was weird to say the least, and that was ignoring the fact she was part of a village that taught people to hate it.

It was a nice looking town - not surprising, they were known as the most civilian friendly village - that, however, had few main streets and many, many places to hide and even more to travel undetected. She knew where the snake got the idea for his underground maze designs from the moment she laid eyes on the clusterfuck of backstreets this place had.

Alley spread into alley spread into dead-end seeming alley that actually led back onto a main road but was covered by roofs in a way it looked like another building from up above. Between shadows and trees, there was no way one could truly survey the endless paths without entering them oneself.

They turned their village into a god damned death trap.

The thought brought a smile to her mask covered face as she leapt to another roof. She had started to analyse the place while ticking off training fields in her search of the Uchiha. Did her a fat load of good. This was a place you just couldn't get to know without growing up here.

As she excused herself from the last field she had scoured for the boy, the ANBU that had been following her finally went down to a level of stealth where any halfway decent ninja would have noticed her. Tayuya briefly contemplated accepting the invitation and saving herself some scrutiny, but decided that if she was going to be posing as a runner, she might as well act like one.

Runners were _not_ known for giving a fuck.

So even when the woman came up to directly stop her on one of the more sturdy - although most buildings here looked like they were capable of surviving combat - roofs, she just flashed her sigil and continued on unimpeded.

Her eyes roamed the surroundings, remaining on any mop of black hair or symbol reminding her of the Uchiha's fan for brief moments before moving on.

On the note of buildings, and ignoring the confusing way most of them were arranged, they all had at least two openings, not counting roof hatches or windows. And just to put the icing on the top, Konoha's wall - the only wall in existence effective against ninja -, for some reason, looked like it was just as hard to climb from the inside as it was from the outside.

And they had an evacuation plan that not even Orochimaru with all his insider knowledge had an idea how to exploit.

She really wondered why 'nice, slackly guarded village' was the first thing coming to mind to most visitors.

Still, she pushed the thoughts away as she arrived at training field three, which seemed to be in use, at least.

*O*O*O*O*

He was going to die.

A slight overdramatisation, admittedly, but he was getting far too close to it for his liking.

His crimson eyes flashed across the landscape, frantically scanning trees and dirt alike for the next tripwire, the next concealed trap or sabotaged footing, all while he ducked between a flurry of kunai thrown at velocities most experienced chunin would have trouble producing. The blades impacted the tree moments before his foot, the bark breaking where he placed it, making him sink into the tree's side halfway to his ankle. Several blades cut into his skin, leaving swallow cuts.

He stuck his palm to a non-weakened part of the trunk, pulling himself out of the sinkhole and out of the way of a wire that impacted the tree with the force of a chakra-charged whip. Just that normal whips didn't cut trees in half.

And people wondered why so many ninja got injured during training.

As he blocked the splinters with his arm, some managing to find their way around his arm guard and painfully biting into his skin, he belatedly noticed that his body was on collision course with one of the hanging cables he had memorised earlier.

His left eye turned just enough to see the thin metal spanning the space between the plants, glinting in the sparse sunlight, but so faintly that almost no one without his visual prowess would have noticed it. His momentum was carrying him right into it.

There was no stopping in mid air. There should have been no use in trying to avoid it, for the necessary level of movement was above most ninja to achieve without ground contact.

But he wasn't most ninja.

He was an Uchiha, one of the only survivors of the clan. Like hell was he going to get killed by a lack of aerial mobility.

His body turned, back facing the floor, arms stretched out upwards, palms facing the sky.

The twin explosions ripped his body.

He cringed from the feeling of his hands being scorched, just before the majority of his breath was forced out of his lungs as his arms rocked back, rattling his shoulder-joint and his body in equal measure. The remainder left him when he impacted the hard floor, just as the back of his head hit it, leaving him with an insistent ringing and thumping.

The sound of blades whistling through the air stopped abruptly as someone stepped up to him.

"Ma, Sasuke-chan, we're training to keep you alive for longer, not kill you prematurely" the scarecrow's foot cut through the air faster than his teammate's weapons ever could, leaving Sasuke with just barely enough time to not get caught by an attack that cracked the floor.

He grunted as their eyes met, his genjutsu being repelled almost instantly as a dozen kunai made their way to his teacher, some thrown by his abused arms, some courtesy of the pink-head - who he still was unable to pin the position off.

Or had been, anyways. But admittedly, it wasn't that hard to notice a body flying at insane speeds toward your face. Not being in a particularly good state, he got bowled over by his teammate, who had been used as a makeshift projectile.

A moment later their teacher appeared, looking as disinterested in everything as always. The copy they had been fighting disappeared in a plume of smoke.

It was humiliating how easily he was taking them out. It was even worse to remember even he probably couldn't notably harm Itachi.

He had a long road ahead of him.

Almost instinctively, his hand moved towards a spot on his neck. Even after it had been stabilized, putting the whispers of Orochimaru's soul out of focus for any notable amount of time was difficult while using it. And even more - it just wasn't enough. His baseline was too weak to properly use the boost.

He winced as the pain in his arms made itself known again and spared a glance towards the him-shaped crater his 'landing' had caused.

The next thing to distract him was deluge of water that absolutely drenched him. He glared at the perpetrator, who was still standing there, unconcerned by his plight.

"We have a guest coming, you should get cleaned up."

*O*O*O*O*

Tayuya landed at the edge of the next training area, searching it for her target. She was pretty far away at the time, but was sure someone had mentioned the Uchiha by name.

As the sounds of training had faded, she flared her chakra in warning before stepping into the field proper shortly after.

As she crossed the open, she was soon met by a dripping wet Uchiha. Blinking twice before remembering the gesture wouldn't be seen through her mask, she tilted her head in interest.

She got an annoyed glare for it.

"I have a message for Sasuke Uchiha." she showed the scroll in her hand and briefly flashed her sigil at them, then turned it and tapped the sealwork much like Kin had "And only Sasuke Uchiha."

The voice that answered was a lot more chipper than what the Uchiha probably felt like. As such, it was most likely the person that caused his current state "Well, seeing as my cute little student has something important to do, we will sadly have to end this session a bit early." the boy's teacher was standing there, completely dry and completely unapologetic as pinkie dragged her also wet self out of the trees behind him.

The Uchiha's glare quickly found the older man, before stopping the futile gesture with a sigh as its target disappeared in a Shunshin. "That's me, I guess."

She looked him over again and he briefly flashed his sharingan before coming up to her and grabbing the message. The seals on it lit up, confirming him as the recipient.

Tayuya handed him the scroll, they nodded at each other, and she went on her way. As soon as she left the training grounds, the ANBU that had been following her before was there again. She went straight through the village, after which her tail soon stopped following her, and into the Forest of Death. When she was about halfway to the tower, a tree that was unnaturally large even by this place's standart caught her eye.

Its crown seemed like a nice spot to play her flute for a bit. Not that she could actually do something so attention grabbing, but she might climb it anyways.

Of course, Tayuya didn't even have her instrument on her - it wouldn't do to take an identifying object with her while she was in hiding - but she would have to report in her success anyways. Maybe there was some time to play - and a secure place for that - afterwards.

Leaves and branches in the edge of her vision begann blurring together as she gained speed again, reaching the tower fairly quickly. She had memorized the way inside when Kin had shown her, and decided to go straight for it instead of wandering around.

She didn't meet anybody else on her way, although she heard enough people. Once she was inside the base, she made a short detour to her room in order to drop off her mask and cloak before going for her new employer, who was still sleeping on the couch. "Hey, you awake?"

"Girl." the response she got was more of a growl in nature. Tayuya felt a slight shiver run down her spine at the hostility in his voice "I hope you don't honestly believe there is a ninja that can sleep through somebody entering their room. What do you need."

Tayuya quirked an eyebrow at the way he devolved into a monotone over the course of his sentence, the memory of the danger she felt already fading "I'm done. Message delivered." She decided to not aggravate him with whatever would have come out of her mouth if she spoke any more.

"Oh. Cool." The simple answer seemed to mollify him well enough.

It took Kin snickering amusedly at the sight for Tayuya to stop staring at him with what had to have been an absurd expression. The girl only made the barest of efforts to suppress her amusement when Tayuya turned to her and instead waved her to follow.

*O*O*O*O*

Kin had calmed down by the time they reached what Tayuya guessed to be her workshop, but seemed to gain a grin any time their eyes met.

"So Red?" the smile on Kin's face grew just a bit "That's your codename, by the way. Red Fox - or Red, for short." she reached a table filled with an assortment of tools and what looked like a half finished mask "Not used to Konoha casualness yet? Don't worry - they're all weird in their own ways, although Naruto-sama admittedly does stand out a bit."

"I guessed."

"Most people do." Kin was more than capable of making up for the lack of amusement at the situation Tayuya displayed.

Tayuya watched as the black haired girl picked up the mask and turned it in her hand. The top half was still blank, while the bottom was shaped into a snarling face. "I started working on this when you came in yesterday, since you'll need something to wear when not working. Looks fine so far?"

There was a somewhat tense silence in the room before Tayuya responded "Fuck if I know." she pulled one of the chairs in the room to her and plopped down on it.

Kin turned towards her, what looked like confused concern written on her face "You sure you're okay? I know Naruto-sama is scary and all, but there's no need to be so tense about it - less point than with the snake at least."

Tayuya threw her hands up in exasperation but let them drop down again when she couldn't come up with anything to say. There were a few more awkwardly silent moments until she spoke "There's just.. he's so _dangerous_ but if I'm not immediately experiencing it that becomes this impossible to grasp thing." she stood up and begun walking up and down the room, ignoring the way Kin's smile seemed to grow at her usual ranting habits "I mean, I know, subconsciously, that he's not somebody to fuck with - so I fucking don't - but whenever I look at him the conscious part of my mind just.." which was the part where she gave up resisting the compulsion and started gesticulating "..just. Just. That. Fucking that. Nothing. He seems so utterly unimportant, so utterly blank, even though he legitimately acts crazy even when there's no murder-aura leaking out of him." she let out a frustrated cry "And I can't fucking deal with it."

She sprawled down onto the floor, taking a deep breath before letting out a long, drawn-out sigh.

Kin went back to her workbench, awkwardly fiddling with the mask and her tools "I can't really tell you much about that." she sounded resigned as she went back to methodically chipping away on the piece of wood "To someone like me, Naruto-sama is always scary, playing the fool or not. That being said, he's still treated me a lot more reasonably than I've been in a while so it doesn't feel like I'm working simply out of fear."

She turned around again, her hair still long enough to trail after her at the quick motion "But, back to more cheerful topics… like the mask!"

Tayuya gave off a half-hearted laugh at that "Yes, the snarling ninja mask is a perfectly cheerful thing." she relaxed a bit more and closed her eyes "You know, if you weren't my cute little Bell-chan I would have to call you out on that absolutely shitty topic change."

"Does that mean you want a happier mask?" Tayuya's ears managed to catch her grabbing for something "Because I can start a new one just fine."

The grin that Tayuya showed the girl at that was probably terrifying "No what you have till now should be fine." she licked her lips "Oh fuck yeah, it's going to be totally fine. You won't even have to do much else, hear this.."

*O*O*O*O*

Tayuya turned the mask in her hands, not capable of stopping the devilish grin that formed on her face.

The snarling was more pronounced, to a point that it was visible even through the thin brown fabric that covered it like a half mask would on a normal face. The top half was still smooth, only a few lines having been added to make the eyeholes seem sunk in, which, together with black one-way glass that made them seem deeper than they actually were, reminded the observer of a dried-out corpse.

Nobody ever said she didn't have a feel for creeping people out - it was somewhat of a prerequisite for a Genjutsu user.

It had taken Kin a few days to finish since she had other jobs to do as well, but Tayuya had used those to get back to former level. During that process, she had learned a few useful fact about the base, one of which she was about to use.

As she walked into the cave-like training area/entrance, pushing some chakra into the activation for the sound-dampening seal. The tiny markings spread across the ceiling flashed for a brief moment, one right next to where she touched staying alight to show its active state.

Sitting against a wall, she placed her new mask on the floor and pulled out her flute. She gave the three clones that were still seated on the water a short glance before starting to play.

 _[Song: We all lift together]_

The music was both far more quiet and far more calm than what she'd use for one of her genjutsu. It was carried through the air, filling the room, only the seals stopping an echo from developing.

It was a calming song, and even though she couldn't remember any of the lyrics the melody had stuck with her over time - over so long she had forgotten when she even heard it.

Tayuya sat there, endlessly repeating that one song, letting it lull herself into some sort of trance where she just sat there, playing, letting her own music soothe her. At some point she had cracked an eye open and found the clones slowly swaying with the rhythm, resulting in her continuing on with a small smile on her face.

Over however long she sat there, she noted several of the others passing her, sometimes staying a bit in the room, listening to her play. After a while, who she assumed to be the real Naruto sat down at his table and began idly sketching out seals. Some clones also brought in multiple bows, as well as a rod of metal that reached halfway into the cave even from where they had deposited it along the hall. It didn't seem to disrupt the dampening field one bit.

As she continued on to playing another song - by then she had switched through a few, but still repeated each of them several times before moving on - she decided that she wouldn't mind living like this.

Kin sat down next to her, adding her own humming to the tune.

Yeah, she could live like this for a while.

*O*O*O*O*

 **And that's that.**

 **Again, a bit shorter, but so long as you don't mind, this is easier for me to write as I don't have to force myself to add on scenes when I reach a fine ending point. We'll have some longer chapters later on.**

 **Anyways, thanks for reading! Leave a review!**


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